BASAVAKALYAN (BIDAR DISTRICT): Trouble is brewing within BJP in Basavakalyan over the selection of Sharanu Salgar as the party candidate for the bypoll, which will be held on April 17. Salgar is yet to file his nomination papers, and already, Maruti Mule, a former JDS MLA and a BJP ticket aspirant this time, has announced that he will contest the bypoll on a Nationalist Congress Party ticket.
Mule, who is a leader from the Maratha community that has a sizeable population in the constituency, told The New Indian Express that BJP failed to consider his service and popularity in the constituency and fielded an outsider. Salgar is from the neighbouring Kalaburagi district.
Mule said he contacted NCP national leaders after his followers pressurised him to contest the polls, and the party gave him the go-head. Mule said that he will file the papers on Monday or Tuesday.
Another BJP ticket contender, Mallikarjun Khuba, too expressed his disappointment over the party ignoring him. Khuba, a two-time Basavakalyan MLA from JDS (2004 and 2013), had unsuccessfully contested on a BJP ticket in 2018. He told TNIE, “I will reach Basavakalyan on Saturday and hold discussions with my followers to chalk out the future course of action.”
Congress, however, seems to have quelled any dissent in the party by fielding Mallamma, the wife of MLA Narayan Rao -- whose death necessitated the by-election here. Also, there is no discontent within JDS over the selection of Syed Yasrab Ali Qadri.